A car battery if you haven’t guessed it, is very important to your vehicle. Without looking after it properly it can lead to a flat battery that won’t start.

The battery provides all electrical power needed to switch on the engine and also stores the extra electricity generated by the alternator. Some of the main reasons that contribute to battery drain include leaving the car headlights on due to them being battery operated lights, using the usb car charger too much and poor charging in general. If it's possible you should charge your car instead of buying a new battery.

Poor charging will cause fast drain of your car battery even while in use due to failure of charging system. Therefore, to prevent this problem the right charging needs to be done and the time on which to let the battery charge depends on several factors:

- The power of the car battery charger.- The condition of the charge.- Setting on the charge for charging the battery.- Availability of remaining charge after being previously dead.

The more the battery is discharged means that the more time to recharge it. A battery only needs couple of hours for recharging but if badly drained it will need about 12 hours to recharge (or even more). It is recommended to charge a battery on slow charge up to 10-amps so as to avoid overcharging leading to reduced service life.

How Long to Charge a Car Battery?

To ascertain the time duration for your battery to charge, you first determine the reserve capacity by using the rule of thumb to compute your battery amp-hours. The reserve capacity is multiplied by 0.6 e.g. 100 minutes’ reserve capacity gives 60 amp-hours. We will look take an example of a 12v battery. You measure the open circuit voltage using a voltmeter. If the reading is 12.2 volts, the battery is 50% charged meaning only 30 amp-hours is required with a 20% more to compensate for internal resistance resulting to 36% amp-hour to charge the battery fully. Assuming you charge at a rate of 10-amp, you need to divide 36 by 10 to get the total time required to recharge the battery i.e. 3.6 hours.

Take Precaution:

We here at MicksGarage.com put health and safety at the forefront of any repairs or changes your are doing on your car. When playing around with car batteries, remember to wear protective glasses and a face mask if you have one. Make sure your body, face and hands are covered in case of any leaks from the batteries.Finally make sure the area you are working in is well ventilated.

Now you know exactly what to do when charging a battery. If you're ever in doubt about what car battery charger you may need or any products in general, simply pop us an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and our team of Car Parts Experts will help you (and we'll make sure you're getting the best price, every time!)